What I love about Trader Joe's

Thursday, December 08, 2011

I could go on and on about why I love Trader Joe's ... but for now I'm just going to talk about the samples of food they give out ... and the incredible salad I had there last week.
(Before ever finding Spark People).
They say never go shopping for food on an empty stomach ... which in my case I often do.
When that's the case on my visits to TJ's, I make a bee line for the sample stand and usually have 3-4 samples (about a 1/4 of a cup or less) before I start to shop.
The guy who's behind the stand most of the times I am there makes the most incredible concoctions with ingredients he finds in the store.
Last week he put together this salad that was out of this world.
I made and ate it 4 days in a row!
The ingredients were: Arugula, Raspberry Vinaigrette, Dried Cranberries, some walnut halves and Crumbled goat cheese.
I suppose now that I am a Spark Person I will have to breakdown the Macro & Micro nutrients, but that's for when I have more time.
This is how to make it:
Fill the bowl with arugula (about 2 cups), then douse with the vinaigrette (about an ounce), mix well so that all the arugula is covered, then throw in about an 1/8th of a cup each of the dried cranberries and crumbled goat cheese and mix again.
This salad is to die for!
Like something you would get in a five star restaurant! (for about 10 bucks!)
I had some raspberry vinaigrette at home and the rest of the ingredients totaled about $6.50. So each serving cost me less than $1.65
Pretty darn good I'd say.
When I went back this week to get some more, they had had a fire in the cheese dept. so I will substitute some Feta cheese this time. I also got the orange flavored dried cranberries, which are my favs, last week they had run out so I had to get the plain ones instead.
Anyway I hope you give this salad a try ... and if you do, let me know if you liked it as much as I do!
Happy Chomping!